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Combating Sexual Misconduct and Abuse of Authority in the United States Army: Same Long Fight

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Combating Sexual Misconduct and Abuse of Authority in the United States Army: Same Long Fight Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence Volume 5 Issue 1 Article 1 5-2020 Combating Sexual Misconduct and Abuse of Authority in the United States Army: Same Long Fight Wesley Martin United States Army Military Police (Retired), [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dignity Part of the Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons, Military, War, and Peace Commons, Other Law Commons, Rule of Law Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, and the Social Psychology and Interaction Commons Recommended Citation Martin, Wesley (2020) "Combating Sexual Misconduct and Abuse of Authority in the United States Army: Same Long Fight," Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence: Vol. 5: Iss. 1, Article 1. DOI: 10.23860/dignity.2020.05.01.01 Available at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dignity/vol5/iss1/1https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dignity/ vol5/iss1/1 This Frontline Report is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Combating Sexual Misconduct and Abuse of Authority in the United States Army: Same Long Fight Abstract Before my combat deployments into Iraq, I, Colonel Wes Martin, had successfully fought another war. As a military police officer, I spent many years fighting against sexual misconduct, abuse of authority, and cover-ups within the senior officer and sergeant ranks in the United States Army. During this fight I faced continual criticism from my senior officers who claimed I was discrediting the Army by exposing the corrupt and immoral behavior of senior officers and sergeants. During the early days of standing up to the corruption, when I had the rank of Major, I received retaliatory evaluations and was forced to temporarily leave active duty. After successfully appealing and having the retaliatory evaluations removed from my records, I was determined no one should suffer the consequences of doing the harder right over the easier wrong. Teaming with military icon Colonel (Retired) David Hackworth and other officers determinedo t create a just system, I played a pivotal role in forcing reforms throughout the Army. While helping other victims of sexual harassment and abuse of authority I wrote three articles that found their way throughout the Army. During this same period, I progressed through four successful commands. In each of those commands I aggressively enforced his standards of “mutual respect” and “trust.” In formations and training I warned all subordinates of the consequences of involvement in sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and racism. Even though I firmly drew the line when assuming each of my commands, there was always at least one subordinate in each who crossed the line thinking he was immune from being held accountable. The result was an immediate end to the transgressions and all dedicated soldiers realizing they had a champion to protect them from abuse. The Army did change for the better and also commenced holding senior officers and sergeants accountable for their actions. Unfortunately, the continuing deployments into combat has had a negative effect on Army leadership. A lot of outstanding junior officers and sergeants left the ranks to build family- oriented lives and civilian careers. Their departures have created vacancies and promotion opportunities for substandard performers. This has in turn resulted in a resurgence of misbehavior. The fortunate part is top Army leadership is no longer blatantly covering the corruption. Keywords United States Army, sexual misconduct, abuse of authority, sexual harassment, military police, heroes, leadership Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Acknowledgements Acknowledgement must start with the bravery of each person subjected to sexual harassment and abuse of authority who takes a stand against the perpetrator(s). These warriors for justice prove themselves to be the heroes and not defeated victims in their own lives. Their fights are twofold. The first is against their tormentor(s) and the second against a system in which people in authority are not always prone to do the harder right over the easier wrong. Acknowledgement is also warranted to Major General Robert Shadley who could have tried to cover-up the sexual misconduct when it was discovered in his command at Aberdeen. Instead, being a professional leader dedicated to the principles of duty, honor, and country he immediately opened up an investigation and brought in the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command. Special acknowledgement is rendered to my mentor and best friend Colonel David Hackworth. Having in 1971 blown the whistle on the failing Vietnam strategy, Hackworth suffered the consequences of his convictions. Hackworth stayed the fight as did Colonel John Pitchford. Without their involvement, the Army’s top sergeant and the Army’s Deputy Inspector General would never have been court-martialed. There were other heroes not mentioned in this document, but the number of all soldiers combined who aggressively fought for justice in the late 1990s only add up to a small fraction within a single percentage point. Yet their uncoordinated and simultaneous efforts came together at the right time to force reform within a broken system. The success they achieved should not be lost. As stated at the beginning of this report, “Warriors despise having to pay for the same real estate twice.” This frontline report is available in Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dignity/vol5/iss1/1 Martin: Combating Sexual Misconduct and Abuse of Authority in the United States Army Volume 5, Issue 1, Article 1, 2020 http//:doi.org/10.23860/dignity.2020.05.01.01 COMBATING SEXUAL MISCONDUCT AND ABUSE OF AUTHORITY IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY: SAME LONG FIGHT Wesley Martin Colonel (Retired) United States Army Military Police ABSTRACT Before my combat deployments into Iraq, I, Colonel Wes Martin, had successfully fought another war. As a military police officer, I spent many years fighting against sexual misconduct, abuse of authority, and cover-ups within the senior officer and sergeant ranks in the United States Army. During this fight I faced continual criticism from my senior officers who claimed I was discrediting the Army by exposing the corrupt and immoral behavior of senior officers and sergeants. During the early days of standing up to the corruption, when I had the rank of Major, I received retaliatory evaluations and was forced to temporarily leave active duty. After successfully appealing and having the retaliatory evaluations removed from my records, I was determined no one should suffer the consequences of doing the harder right over the easier wrong. Teaming with military icon Colonel (Retired) David Hackworth and other officers determined to create a just system, I played a pivotal role in forcing reforms throughout the Army. While helping other victims of sexual harassment and abuse of authority I wrote three articles that found their way throughout the Army. During this same period, I progressed through four successful commands. In each of those commands I aggressively enforced his standards of “mutual respect” and “trust.” In formations and training I warned all subordinates of the consequences of involvement in sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and racism. Even though I firmly drew the line when assuming each of my commands, there was always at least one subordinate in each who crossed the line thinking he was immune from being held accountable. The result was an immediate end to the transgressions and all dedicated soldiers realizing they had a champion to protect them from abuse. The Army did change for the better and also commenced holding senior officers and sergeants accountable for their actions. Unfortunately, the continuing deployments into combat has had a negative effect on Army leadership. A lot of outstanding junior officers and sergeants left the ranks to build family-oriented lives and civilian careers. Their departures have created vacancies and promotion opportunities for substandard performers. This has in turn resulted in a resurgence of misbehavior. The fortunate part is top Army leadership is no longer blatantly covering the corruption. Published by DigitalCommons@URI, 1 Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence, Vol. 5, Iss. 1 [], Art. 1 KEYWORDS United States, Army, sexual misconduct, officers, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, cover-up N THE EARLY 1990s, I, United States Army Major Wesley Martin, found myself in a broken environment where sexual misconduct and abuse of authority was I an accepted and self-sustaining way of life. For having protected subordinates from a corrupt environment, I was drawn into a fight that exposed the seriousness and depth of an Army-wide problem. The efforts of my allies and I resulted in re- forms that ranged from temporary to potentially permanent. Now retired from ac- tive duty, I am witnessing the repeat of a disturbing history. The following is my account of combating sexual misconduct and abuse of authority among high-rank- ing officers in the Army. I retired from active duty in 2010. During my rise from private to colonel I ac- cumulated over 10 years of command time, including two battalions, one group, and one base. My combat tours include serving as the senior Antiterrorism/Force Protection Officer for all coalition forces in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom 1 and 2, as senior coalition forces liaison officer with the United Nations, as Senior Operations Officer for Task Force 134 (Detention Operations), and as Commander of Forward Operating Base Ashraf (working with the Iranian Mujahedin). During my three Pentagon tours of duty I served as Force Protection Assessment Team Chief, Army Operations Center Crisis Action Team Chief, and Department of Army Information Operations Chief.
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